Major Study To Combat Alzheimer's Disease

The Roskamp Institute announced it will take part in a groundbreaking study that revolves around the use of a drug used to treat high blood pressure. Studies on mice have shown that use of the drug increases the flow of blood to the brain, as well as decreasing the amount of proteins called amyloids that have been associated with Alzheimer's.

Roskamp director Michael Mullan says the study will look at how the drug works in humans.

MULLAN: It's an important and exciting time for us, as we get into the clinic with a compound that we think may be helpful in Alzheimer's Disease. It's been a long time coming, obviously, about 10 years or so we've been working on this particular compound.

Roskamp is looking for volunteers who have been diagnosed with the disease who will be asked to give blood for the study. Fiona Crawford is the institute's associate director.

CRAWFORD: So we're going to be following these folks and see if they're seeing those effects as the first step toward potentially moving forward to a full-fledged clinical trial with this drug, to see if we can actually cure Alzheimer's disease - or at least block its progression.

Local volunteers won't be given the drug, because it hasn't been approved for use in this country on humans. That part of the study will be done by Trinity College in Ireland.